Portland public school students to protest budget cuts, declining services May 1

View full sizefrom The SkannerTubman mom Jyothi Pulla, at right, chats with Portland City Commissioner Amanda Fritz, at left, along with a group of students about the Tubman STEM school closure during a reception for the city's new Office of Equity and Diversity held earlier this month.

Multiple school protests are scheduled over the next week and a half against $27.5 million in Portland Public Schools cuts that, parents, educators and students say, are decimating the Jefferson High School cluster and crippling schools district-wide.

Efforts by some to bring their concerns to Gov. John Kitzhaber appear to have hit a brick wall as well, a critical issue because much of the Portland schools’ budget crisis was handed down by state officials who have cut nearly $50 million from PPS since last year.

On May 1 a student strike is scheduled including a march on the Portland Public Schools offices at 501 N. Dixon, with students planning to blockade the building’s parking lot and doors at 7:30 a.m.

That event is a prelude to a larger march on City Hall, May 11, called the “UPSET” march, which started out as a Grant High School student and educator protest but its website shows it is spreading around the district.